On a warm Thursday at the end of September, Michelle Waters Pritchett serves lunch to the homeless men and women at the Opportunity Center, a facility in Palo Alto offering services for the homeless and people in need.

Olive skinned, dark haired, and once homeless herself, Pritchett volunteers daily in the kitchen of the Opportunity Center as a member of Palo Alto’s Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit launched in 2005 to clean up the city’s dirty streets while helping the homeless help themselves.

DST operates on a “job first” model, based on the belief that a job — even a volunteer post like Pritchett’s — is the first step away from homelessness, towards a more stable future. Although it began with just four team members, all homeless at the time they joined, DST has grown to 46 participants with a 12-person waiting list. Read More >>